rAge 2015: Final Day eSports round-up

11 October 2015

By Chris Kemp

It’s a wrap! The eSports of rAge 2015 come to an end, with some pretty epic matches in the process. Inside you’ll find the winners of each game, discussion, highlights, pics from the day and all that eSport-y goodness. Hit the jump to see who took home 100,000s of rands in prizes.

League of Legends

This might have been the Finals match of the day, with Ventus going up against the unstoppable force that is eN.Re Vera.

Coming into the match, Energy’s confidence was matched by Ventus, who looked determined and capable of doing what they haven’t been able to do in three years. The energy in the room was high, as spectators pulled up chairs and beanbags behind the two teams’ computers, not wanting to wait for the slightly delayed stream.

Energy came out of the gates hard and strong, swiftly dispatching Ventus in a disappointing first game that no doubt knocked their confidence. It didn’t show in their gameplay however, as in Game 2 a dominant showing in the bottom lane led Ventus to tie the game up 1-1.

The third and final game was the type of epic battle you want for a Grand Final decider, with a fair amount of back and forth between both teams. Ventus was fired up, taking control of the early game and shouting, screaming and cheering loudly as they did it, which the fans joined in with gladly.

Energy showed their experience under pressure however, capitalising on a number of small errors from Ventus and slowly taking control of the game without giving anything back. Ventus started to cave under the pressure, and some poorly executed fights led to a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Re Vera, who took the title once again.

It was a great effort from both teams and an even greater match to watch. Energy held on to their top spot, but it was more closely contested than it has been in years, and coming in to the 2016 season they’re going to have to be ready for some tough competition.

Who needs the stream when you can just pull up a beanbag behind the players?

Battlefield 4

After an absolutely dominant performance all tournament, ApG once again put on a stunning display of why they are the most formidable Battlefield team in the country.

After beating puLse gaming 2-0 in the Winners’ bracket, they were to face them again in the Grand Finals. puLse no doubt had come in with a game plan to improve on their previous performance, but ultimately had to settle for a well-fought second place as ApG dealt with them handily in a 3-0 defeat.

This means that ApG did not drop a single game all tournament, delivering all their opponents an X-0 defeat. Quite simply, any local Battlefield tournament they enter is theirs to lose.

They don’t look too worried, do they?

Hearthstone

With only the Finals left to play, the support seemed decidedly in favour of likeable 16th seed Greg “GrazE” Bloch, who was taking on the formidable 2nd seed, Dale “Pand3m0nia” Pon, who’d fought his way out of the Loser’s Bracket to face Bloch, who’d lost both matches on Day 1 and then went undefeated on Day 2.

The Cinderella story was not to be, however, as Pon cruised to a 3-1 victory, claiming a hard-fought title which saw him playing the most matches in the tournament due to his early move down to the Loser’s Bracket.

DotA 2

Relatively new clan Pls dont flame us we r new (the clue is in the title) were tasked the with challenge of taking out defending champs and DGL stalwarts Bravado in the Grand Finals – with the lion’s share of a R200,000 prize pool on the line. A big ask for a clan that doesn’t have anywhere near Bravado’s tournament experience.

That being said, NewB (for short) were picked up by the established White Rabbit Gaming earlier this year, and had that behind them as they put on a strong performance all tournament.

However, experience would triumph over the confidence of youth as Bravado took the series down 2-0. It was by no means a whitewash however, with the games being hard-fought battles by both teams. With their new partner and a little more experience, NewB is going to be a team to watch in 2016.

This is how you watch a Finals running on no sleep – beanbags.

CS:GO

This was a big match going in, as tournament favourites Bravado faced up against Energy eSports.

There was a bit of hype around this match for two reasons:

A shuffle in the local teams earlier this year saw Bravado take what many would argue were Energy’s two best players

Despite being the favourites for the tournament, Bravado had actually lost to Energy 2-1 in the Winner’s Bracket finals, so coming in people were uncertain who the real favourite was

It would seem however that Bravado were saving their best strats for when it mattered most, as they began the finals in dominant fashion and never seemed to let up. With well-executed site takes and holds throughout the matches and getting the better of Energy in the aim battles, Bravado managed to cruise to a 2-0 victory and hold their spot as the best CS:GO team in the country.

Things to watch

Important stuff

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